A GOODS INWARDS & DESPATCH SYSTEM LINKED TO SAGE LINE100

One of the most frustrating problems when receiving purchased goods into the Store or Warehouse is that in many cases the received items either do not incorporate a barcoded part number, incorporate a part number which may be different to that used by the company receiving the goods, or in some cases incorporate a part number which is actually incorrect.

This latter situation is not uncommon where the supplier has converted the original product from one ‘version' to another in order to satisfy a specific customer order. In this case the original product label often remains on the outer packaging identifying the correct overall product, but the incorrect model or variant.

In a fast moving Goods Receiving environment these problems make the task of correctly identifying items, some of which may physically look very similar, even more difficult.

The result is a costly combination of frequently inaccurate stock levels, and apparent ‘loss' of product etc. often requiring senior or technical staff to assist in unravelling the confusion.

And to make matters worse the problem starts all over again when picking and despatching product from the store or warehouse.

For the Distributor this can lead to loss of orders as a result of product not being in stock, or the despatch of incorrect products against customer orders, or the mistaken despatch of more expensive variants of a product.

A resolution to this problem compatible with the customer's Sage Line100 Accounting and Stock Control software was required by a leading UK Distributor.

THE SOLUTION

ERS developed and supplied a solution based on the CPT8071 compact Wi-Fi terminal with the rugged Barcode Blaster label printer.

It works like this:

GOODS INWARDS

When a delivery arrives at Good Inwards the relevant Order Reference is entered at the terminal. The Order is retrieved from the Line100 database and a list of all items from that order is immediately sent to the terminal together with ordered quantity.

The terminal is then used to ‘receive' each item in the delivery, either accepting the ordered quantity or confirming the actual quantity received.

As each item is ‘received' the appropriate number of barcode labels for that item are automatically produced on the label printer. These labels include the correct product code for the item allowing every product received to be given the correct barcoded product code before it is moved to the storage location.

The barcoded product labels may be produced ‘item-by-item' if required, or can be produced as a batch if preferred.

Barcode labels may be produced for all incoming products if required or alternatively a spare field in the Line100 database may be used to identify only a sub-set of products for which labels are required. In this way label printing can be restricted only to those incoming products which are not already correctly barcoded.

The link to the central database provided by Line100 is Read Only so the system cannot automatically update Line100 with received items. A simple Goods Received Note may therefore be generated by the system identifying those items and quantities received against each Purchase Order. This GRN may then be used to update Line100 in the usual way.

PICKING

By ensuring that every item in the Store or Warehouse contains a correctly barcoded label the system not only significantly reduces the probability of mis-locating a product into the Store or Warehouse during ‘Putaway', but simplifies and deskills subsequent Picking of the items to customer order or works Order.

The on-line Wi-Fi link to the central Line100 database means that the terminal can now be used to control the Pick operation, ensuring that only the correct items are selected for each customer order.

Alternatively, if preferred, the terminal can be used to verify each picked ‘order'. This approach provides a convenient way of both checking that the correct items have been picked, and allows additional information to be captured including the Serial Nos. of items (where appropriate), and the Despatch details including Consignment No. and number of boxes despatched. These data can then be passed to the relevant host warranty and order tracking systems.

THE BENEFITS

The system uses an on-line wireless link to the central Sage Line100 database to provide a simple means of ensuring that all items received into store are given the correct barcoded part number thereby removing errors when receiving and locating incoming goods.

The barcodes are also used during the pick operation to ensure that pick orders are correctly fulfilled.

Benefits include:

- Increased stock accuracy

- Reduced costs due to overstocking to accommodate stock inaccuracies

- Reduction in orders lost due to incorrect stock levels

- Reduction in costs associated with incorrectly despatched goods